To address a $5 million dollar budget crunch, the Duluth Schools notified 41 people they are being displaced.

Displaced means they will be moved out of their current position, but could apply for a different position.

About half are teachers, with 16 paraprofessionals and several other support staff.

Ethan Fisher, the president of the Duluth Federation of Teachers, told us the numbers were about what he expected. But some of the choices were a surprise.

The district is also moving to eliminate the athletic director positions at East and Denfeld, held by Shawn Roed and Tom Pearson. Instead, they want to move those duties into an assistant principal role.

Fisher said they consider this a contract violation, as the men are working as Teachers On Special Assignment, and have filed a grievance.

Superintendent John Magas addressed this. “We’ve had great athletic directors. But an administrator has more training in supervision and thinking about things systemically and safety issues. Having someone in both roles and doing both efforts can be better for the system overall.”

He also shared with WDIO that they’ve reduced salaries by about 10% at administration and central services, and 8% at the sites.

As for final numbers, those are still in the works.

“Throughout the spring, we’ll look at enrollment, we’ll look at what comes through for state aid, and any change with funding, along with retirements and resignations. All of those factor in. We are hoping layoffs will be minimal,” Magas said.

Inflation, the failed referendum, and expired pandemic funds are all factors in the crunch, according to the district.